Director/writer Lou Stein and composer Dave Carey have shifted it to the 1930s so that the story of Scrooge as an exploitative textile factory owner is set against the depression, campaigns for equal pay for women and rumblings of an impending war. And they manage to do all this while still retaining some of the most iconic lines and scenes in the original. It’s neat, clever and effective.

And because this is Chickenshed it’s ensemble, ensemble, ensemble with some talented adults (mostly former Chickenshed members who have stayed on as staff) glueing the production together. Each performance features 200 cast members with an emphasis on diversity and inclusivity. This is, after all, “Theatre changing lives”. I saw the “Blue rota” but there are also red, yellow and green rotas who appear on other nights. In total Stein and his colleagues are working with 800 performers on this show which is crazy but with supremely efficient organisation and discipline they make it work extraordinarily well

The advantage, of course, of having such huge numbers is that with skilled choreography (by a team of five) you can create some stunning scenes and tableaux – and, by golly, they do from the jolly dance scene in Mr Fezziwig’s to the darkly lit ghost scenes with actors dressed in William Fricker’s fabulous greenish grey chain-festooned rags. It also means you can create lots of “bit” parts so we hear lots of these performers singing just a solo verse or two. Of course they’re not professionals but they’re well trained and achieve, generally a high standard.

Carey’s enjoyable music – played live but out of sight from an over-stage gallery and led by him on keys – is firmly in period with lots of jazzy rhythms. Once or twice it feels as if we’re about to waltz off into Me and My Girl but all music is imitative to a greater or lesser extent.

Ashley Driver is a fine Scrooge: gruff, irascible, scowling outrageously unreasonable and then gradually softening as the visitations work their transformational magic. At one point, having stomped about crossly for a long time, he does a little dance of glee and it’s a lovely moment. Michael Bossisse, looking wonderful in white fur, is a vibrant Ghost of Christmas Present and Gemilla Shamruk sings beautifully as the Ghost of Christmas Past. I liked Paul Harris’s richly voiced Marley too.

This show is integrally signed which is always a joy to see. Belinda McGuirk is a wonderfully expressive signer and she’s often joined, or replaced, by other cast members sometimes from side stage and sometimes from within the action. I admire both the inclusivity and the way it’s so fluidly integrated so that the signing becomes an enjoyable part of the show in its own right.

Chickenshed triumphs yet again. And “A Merry Christmas to us all” as Tiny Tim puts it.

First published by Sardines: http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Chickenshed-A%20Christmas%20Carol&reviewsID=3414

Dan Starkey, Douggie McMeekin and Unique Spencer. Photo: Darren Bell

Anthony Neilson’s 60-minute one-act play, first staged at The Read Room in 1995 is a clever idea for a seasonal play and it sits quite happily in the Southwark Playhouse configured in the round. It asks, in a light-hearted way, some quite significant questions about what Christmas is, why we feel about it as we do and about the complexity and messiness of relationships.

Gary (Douggie McMeekin) is running a mildly dodgy warehouse business when, on Christmas Eve, he catches what he takes to be a burglar (Dan Starkey). The intruder claims he’s a Christmas Elf and is certainly dressed as one. Incredulity, some of it quite funny, follows especially from Gary’s friend Simon (Michael Salami) and later from the prostitute Cherry, (Unique Spencer) clearly a regular caller. None of them believes a word of it really but, in their different ways, they are all unhappy people who’d really like some joy in their lives and, eventually, in a sense find it.

There’s some intelligent acting especially between McMeekin and Salami who spark well off each other and are visible listeners. Starkey’s Elf is a much more middle class type and the contrast adds a bit of dramatic friction. Spencer’s character is very angry and has plenty of presence although her accent is unconvincing.

On the whole, though, the pacing of the piece is a bit samey. There’s an awful lot of loud expletive-laden shouting and “attitude” which isn’t balanced by enough reflective discussion Yes, it’s naturalistic dialogue, but no one talks like this at such length because it would be so exhausting. It’s certainly wearing to listen to. When characters stop to think and desist from shouting and start thinking we see real sensitive vulnerability and the production needs a bit more of that.

Douggie McMeekin and Dan Starkey star in The Night Before Christmas at Southwark Playhouse. Photo: Darren Bell

★★★★

This tunefully jolly Christmas show presents four talented singer/actors – Kris Marc-Joseph, Laurie Denman, Alex Bloomer and Joshua Da Costa – who really know how to work well together in a small space. Stuart Ross’s play is billed as a ‘holiday sequel’ to his earlier Forever Plaid and features – mostly in short bursts and slick medleys – almost every Christmas song, carol or tune you can think of.

The Plaids are a close harmony group who died in a Pensylvania road crash in 1964. Now, for reasons they don’t quite understand, the celestial powers-that-be have sent them back to do one more show on earth. Cue for much interplay between the four of them and puzzlement over, for example, mobile phones and other 2018 issues.

Musically directed by versatile (good falsetto too) Laurie Denman on keyboard, the singing is splendid. Whether it’s Gregorian chant or Santa Baby these four sing beautifully together with almost every harmony accurately nuanced. There is a handbell sequence which is fun too (I wonder how long it took to rehearse?) and sometimes the quartet play percussion instruments as they sing.

Joshua Da Costa, who sings the bass parts with warmth, is especially impressive. Twice he started a number ‘cold’ and unaccompanied – but perfectly in tune as we can all hear when the accompaniment joins him. Alex Bloomer’s Sparky is a gentle, wide-eyed character in whom the actor finds plenty of feisty vulnerability. Kris Marc-Joseph brings lots of personality and charisma to the quartet especially in his well controlled solo number.

Director Guy Retallack clearly knows how to make the best of his modest but delightful SE20 (there’s always a Penge joke and this show is no exception) pub theatre space. The quartet dance, create formations and use the podium edge as well as making masses of eye contact with the very close audience. Retallack also ensures that we react to each man as an individual as well as part of the group.

The fresh originality of this show is a welcome antidote to seasonal theatrical saccharine and pantomimes.

★★★★

My first 2018 pantomime, as always, sets a high standard for the rest to meet. Paul Hendy’s take on Cinderella glitters (often literally) with high production values and enough innovation to make it feel fresh without denting the traditional flavour.

This Cinders, for example (Cara Dudgeon) is a feisty feminist and there are a lot of quite funny stereotype-busting jokes in the first half hour or so. She fails to keep it up once she sights Oliver Watton’s Prince Charming but it doesn’t matter much in this context. Dudgeon, incidentally has a fine singing voice and is a vibrantly accomplished dancer. We also get a pair of exquisitely cute white Shetland ponies to pull the carriage, a stunning aerial turn by Duo Fusion (Connor Byrne and Tiffany Gaine) and excellently choreographed (Jono Kitchens) dancing by a team of eight professionals with a small group of local children. Then there’s the very talented child, said in the script to be aged eight, who chips in with terrific flair and aplomb. She is not credited by name in the programme so presumably there is one who can carry this off in each of the three rotating children’s teams.

The best thing of all in this show is the skill with which Ben Roddy and Lloyd Hollett, both Marlowe regulars who are known and loved by the audience, work together as the ugly sisters. They simper, mince, flirt with the audience and play off each other perfectly – two men who’ve worked together many times before and know exactly how to nuance every word and every toss of the head. Watching them is like a panto dame-ing masterclass.

Phil Gallagher is a reliable Buttons with all the right insouciance tempered with a bit of pathos and Harry Reid’s gor-blimey Dandini from Gravesend is good value. The local jokes, as always at the Marlowe, come thick and fast as the script pokes gentle fun at most of the other local towns.

There are, however, a few things in this show which are not quite right. It is a directorial misjudgement to run the aerial sequence while Dudgeon and Watton are singing. Both pairs deserve full focus. Neither should act as an accompaniment to the other.

Chris Wong’s band does its usual excellent job. He is a breathtaking guitarist so when he stands on the main stage to play a sort of showpiece cadenza it should be for more than a few bars. As it is there is barely time to register what he is doing before he is gone – an opportunity thrown away. And I won’t dwell on the weak singing by several cast members because, in the context of this high octane show it didn’t distract much. Suffice it to say they were evidently cast for their other skills.

Generally though this is a panto which zips pacily along managing to be wittily subversive without ever resorting to smut and that makes it a bit of a treat.

Photo: Pamela Raith